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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed he was off-pace and lacked speed around the Losail International Circuit in Friday's second practice (FP) session. The Briton was unaware of the performance gap to the benchmark at the circuit and believed he had to find answers to his pace deficit in both sessions.
In FP1, the high kerbs damaged the seven-time world champion’s car, forcing him to pit for repairs. However, in FP2, Lewis Hamilton appeared to be sliding across the circuit and was unable to post a competitive lap time, citing grip issues.
Speaking to f1.com after Friday's practice sessions, he said:
“I don't even know how big the gap is, but I'm off, so I'm definitely not close. I'm a little bit slow, so I need to figure that out tonight.”
The Briton was consistently fourth-fastest in both sessions, outpaced by his teammate Valtteri Bottas and title contender Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton’s gap to the Dutchman was over seven-tenths of a second in FP1, and over four-tenths to his Finnish team-mate in FP2. In both sessions, he was outpaced by Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly, who was consistently second on the board.
Describing his first impressions of the Losail International Circuit, Lewis Hamilton said:
“Driving-wise, it's okay. I mean it's all high-speed corners, so it's definitely physical, but then the track's quite nice, no real issues.”
Although Friday's practice sessions did not reveal much in terms of sprint pace when it comes to Lewis Hamilton, one cannot discount him from being among the top three if he's able to sort out his pace issues by Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton says "Right of Review" decision was not his prime focus
While the "Right of Review" request filed by Mercedes for the Brazil GP incident was denied by the FIA, Lewis Hamilton said he did not have any views on it as he was focused on his own driving. The Briton said he was not a part of the hearing and was too busy focusing on his own weekend instead
The FIA denied Mercedes the Right of Review over the Lap 48 spat between Hamilton and Verstappen at the Brazil GP because they felt the new evidence was inconsequential to warrant a change in their decision.
